Source: International Christian Concern, May 24, 2023
Kenneth Elliott, an Australian doctor kidnapped in Burkina Faso and held captive by al-Qaeda for more than seven years, has finally returned home to his family.
“Kenneth Elliott was safe and well and was reunited with his wife and their children on Thursday night,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Associated Press.
“We wish to express our thanks to God and all who have continued to pray for us,” added Elliott’s family in a statement released by Wong’s department.
On January 15, 2016, Elliott and his wife Jocelyn were taken from their home in Burkina Faso by the Mali-based terror organization al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Jocelyn was quickly released in February 2016.
Elliott and his wife had been running a hospital in Djibo. The hospital, which could hold 120 patients, was closed due to Elliott’s absence after the kidnappings. He was the only surgeon in the area and made his services free to the population of roughly 2 million. He was given the nicknames the “Doctor of the Poor” and “Savior of the Sahel” for the work he was doing.
Read the full story or one from the Associated Press. The family’s statement says, “At 88 years of age, and after many years away from home, Dr. Elliott now needs time and privacy to rest and rebuild strength.”
Apparently, the Sahel now accounts for nearly half of global terrorism, with more people killed by terrorists there than in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia combined (Unherd). On the weekend the Elliotts were kidnapped, the same group took credit for a terrorist attack in Ouagadougou that killed 30 others from at least 18 nationalities.
And in other news of captives released, an Iranian judge freed a Christian couple and ruled that house church gatherings are not illegal, and another judge reduced a Christian’s prison sentence for holding services in his home from ten years to two (Article18).